Food & Wine Pairing: Grilled Shrimp

Food & Wine Pairing: Grilled Shrimp

There is no better way to enjoy summer than with delicious grilled shrimp paired with a fantastic white wine. That’s why A Pug In The Kitchen and Vino In Love teamed up for a food & wine pairing project. Suzanne, an amazing cook and the author of A Pug In The Kitchen, came up with wonderful recipe for grilled shrimp scampi. You have to try them. Trust me!

Grilled shrimp

Makes: 4 servings

12-18 fresh large shrimp peeled and deveined

1 large garlic clove peeled

1/4 cup olive oil

1/2 tsp lemon zest

pinch of sea salt

Clean and devein your shrimp. Lay them on paper towels to dry (Its important that they be as dry as possible) I pat them dry then lay them on fresh dry paper towels for 15-30 minutes.

Peel your garlic clove and slice, place in mortar with a pinch of sea salt and smash it, add some of the olive oil and mix it up. Place shrimp either in bowl or ziplock bag, pour the garlic and oil from the mortar onto the shrimp, add the rest of the oil and the lemon zest. Refrigerate for 30 minutes Smoosh the bag around to make sure the shrimp are coated with the marinade.

Preparing the dish:

4 tbs butter

1 large clove garlic minced

juice of 1 lemon

1/4 tsp lemon zest

handful of flat leaf parsley chopped

splash of olive oil

Fire up the grill, while it’s heating remove the shrimp from the marinade and thread onto skewer. I like to put 6 shrimp to a skewer but it depends on their size. Keep the marinade you will use it to brush the shrimp while they are grilling. Baste the shrimp then grill 1-2 minutes turn skewer over brush with more marinade and grill another minute or two. Before you start grilling the shrimp make your sauce, in small saucepan saute the garlic in a little olive oil. don’t let it brown just until its translucent. Add the lemon juice, zest and the 4 tbs of butter and cook for approximately 2 minutes or until butter is melted. Add the chopped parsley.

When shrimp are done arrange on a platter and spoon sauce over the grilled shrimp.

Wine Pairing

Grilled shrimp call for either a sparkling wine or a white wine. The wine we are looking for should be medium bodied and crisp. It’s very important that the wine has no or only little oak. I decided to pair the Shrimp scampi with a Sauvignon Blanc from South Tyrol but Trebbiano from Northern Italy (for example Lugana) would pair equally well. Why South Tyrolean Sauvignon Blanc? Italy’s Alto Adige region offers perfect growing conditions for Sauvignon Blanc and the sandy and limy soil give the wines great personality.

My choice is the 2011 Tenute Loacker Tasnim. Regular readers of Vino in Love know that Loacker is one of my favorite wineries. Loacker has three estates – two in Tuscany and one in South Tyrol. Tasnim is produced with 100% Sauvignon Blanc grapes. 93% of the grapes are fermented in stainless steel vats and the remaining 7% are fermented in small French barriques. The grapes are fermented for around 6 weeks.

Tasnim ages in stainless steel tanks for around half a year and ages a few more weeks in the bottle before it gets sold. The wine has an aging potential of up to 4 years. Tasnim is classified as IGT Alto Adige. I remember that older vintages used to be classified as Alto Adige DOC. However, I am not sure why the wine’s appellation was changed.

Let’s find out why the Tasnim pairs excellent with grilled shrimp.

Tasting Notes 2011 Tenute Loacker Tasnim

In the glass, Tasnim has a beautiful green-yellow color with golden-yellow hues. The label listed alcohol by volume was 13.5%.

On the nose, the wine was rich and very intense. The bouquet was fruity and spicy with aromas of gooseberry, elder flower, litchi fruit, nutmeg, rosemary, myrtle and honey.

In the mouth, dry, fine, quite intense and very smooth. Tasnim had an elegant acidity and a high minerality. The wine was harmonic and was medium bodied. Spectacular, lingering finish.

4 / 5 stars

Parting Words

Tenute Loacker’s Tasnim is a very good Sauvignon Blanc and is recommended. It’s an excellent wine pairing for Suzanne’s grilled shrimp. A bottle of Tasnim retails in Munich for around 19€. As mentioned earlier, I would also recommend Trebbiano with this dish. If you prefer Trebbiano over Sauvignon Blanc then pair the grilled shrimp with this wine: 2012 Pratello Terre Bianche Lugana DOC.

Please let me know what you think about the dish and the wine in the comment section below! What wine would you pair with grilled shrimp?

34 comments on “Food & Wine Pairing: Grilled Shrimp”

Wonderful, thank you so much Julian. I love doing the food/wine pairings. Now I know the perfect wine to go with my grilled shrimp. As always. you are the absolute authority (IMHO) and I know that serving your choice will be just perfect with the food. Thank you!

It was lots of fun doing this food & wine pairing with you! I’ve only prepared your grilled shrimp once so far and everyone at the table loved eating them

Please let me know what you think about the Tasnim. It’s possible that the 2011 vintage is already sold out (it sells out quickly) but the 2012 vintage was released two months ago so I hope you find a bottle of it.

Sounds tasty! I’ve always paired grilled shrimp with a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc–but we have a very good wine merchant here who specializes in Italian imports. Now I’m interesting in trying the Tasnim.

Mmmhhh this looks delicious
I haven’t tried the 2011 Tasnim yet but two or three years ago I tried a bottle and really liked it. It’s hard to get because the bottles sell out so quickly. Do you know if the Tasnim won the 3 bicchieri again this year?

RiojaChianti,
I’m not sure if the Tasnim won the 3 biccheri in 2013 but I know that it won the 3 bicchieri in previous editions of the Gambero Rosso.
You are right that it’s hard to find the Tasnim. Loacker should produce more bottles of it! After all, the Tasnim is Loacker’s most popular white wine.

Good work guys!
I have a question though. From my experience Sauvignon Blanc and Trebbiano are two completely different wines so why do both pair equally well with shrimp?
I’ll make sure to buy some shrimp for my next BBQ!

Hannah,
Thank you so much!
Regarding your question. Sauvignon Blanc and Trebbiano pair well with Suzanne’s grilled shrimp for different reasons but you are right that a Trebbiano tastes different than a Sauvignon Blanc. But Trebbiano from Lombardy like a Lugana will taste different than Trebbiano d’Abruzzo, too. The Trebbiano grape is grown pretty much all over Italy

Scampi are one of my favorite type of seafood. The last time I prepared scampi I paired them with a light RED wine. That didn’t work too well though. I haven’t tried Sauvignon Blanc nor Lugana with them. Maybe next time
When I grill scampi then I just put them on grill for 10 minutes. I plan to try them with Suzanne’s marinade, too.

Frank,
Thanks for commenting. I know that the latest trend is to pair fish with red wine but I still prefer white and pink wines with seafood.
Let us know how you like the grilled Scampi when you prepare them

Yea I don’t get that trend either but my wife insisted that we try it out so we did.
Of course I’ll let you know how the shrimp taste together with Sauvignon Blanc but I already know that it’s going to taste good

This sounds like a Sauvignon Blanc I would enjoy but unfortunately I don’t like scampi at all..
Maybe I find a bottle of Loacker Tasnim somewhere but according to Wine Searcher it’s not available in the US (anymore).

Marco,
The Tenute Loacker Tasnim Sauvignon Blanc pairs well with quite a lot of dishes so you can still try it even if you don’t like scampi. The 2011 vintage is pretty much sold out in Europe, too. Look for the 2012 vintage instead.